Formosa's Hat Trick Carries the Stangs

By Branden Crowe, 11/10/12, 1:00AM CST

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Earn a 6-3 win in hostile territory

Melfort Mustangs 6 Nipawin Hawks 3

Brandon Formosa had the best night of his career with the Melfort Mustangs as he netted a hat trick to lead the Mustangs to a come from behind win over the Nipawin Hawks in an absolute thriller at The Cage.

It took all of 90 seconds for the Mustangs to silence the 630 people in attendance at the Centennial Arena as he opened the scoring on a great shot from the high slot on a Jesse Bernard turnover.

Eight minutes later Godric Tham scored a highlight reel goal as he deked out the defender and ripped home his 5th of the season to give the offensively dormant Mustangs a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.

Doug Johnson is a fiery coach and it was clear that whatever he said in the break woke up his Nipawin Hawks.

Three unanswered goals in 11 minutes helped the Hawks regain the lead and the momentum. The line of Jesse Bernard, Wheaton King and Jesse Williamson combined for 5 points in the period with Bernard and King adding goals to Garrett Lockeridge's 1st of the season.

The turning point of the hockey game came late in the 2nd period when the Hawks came out flying and fired 9 shots on Jesse Wilkins on one shift and the Calgary native was an absolute rock. Wilkins wasn't tested too often on the night but was great making 30 saves for the win.

The third period was all Melfort as they exploded for four goals. Brennan Bosovich and Cole Hyrsky chipped in while Brandon Formosa added two more to complete the hat-trick and seal the deal for the win.

10 Mustangs made it onto the scoresheet and their powerplay finally caught a break as they capitalized on a 5-3 in the second period.

Davis Jones made 34 saves in the losing effort for the Hawks and will likely get the start tonight (Saturday).

These two teams swap venues and will do it all again Saturday night at The Palace. The game can be heard on CK750 starting with the pre-game show at 7:15.